It seems contradictory to put those paragraphs together though. If CITES is working properly, why are we seeing the worst poaching and trafficking of wildlife products on record?

Well, put simply, it’s not working as it should. Member governments sign up to CITES commitments that tackle the illegal wildlife trade in species like rhinos, elephants and tigers, but they aren’t implementing them all. It can be so frustrating knowing that the solutions are there, but they aren’t being delivered. This often comes down to a lack of political will.

But there is hope. CITES has the ability to impose trade suspensions for countries that are non-compliant, and that’s a strong motivating factor. Such suspensions would mean no trade in specimens, parts or products of species listed by CITES with those countries.

That can have a huge financial impact, so those countries have a very strong economic reason to implement their commitments to CITES in order to have those suspensions lifted.

The CITES Parties (the 178 governments signed up) don’t impose trade suspensions lightly. WWF doesn’t ask for them without great deliberation either.

However, with the poaching crisis we’re facing now, WWF is calling on governments to hold to account those countries consistently failing on their responsibilities to protect elephants and rhinos from trafficking.

Our global campaign on illegal wildlife trade is reaching a peak here in Bangkok, Thailand. The next meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to CITES is going to start here on Sunday. Running to 14 March, it’s going to be a frantic, busy, and exhausting couple of weeks; talking to government delegates, other non-government organisations, experts and media.

I’m an optimist, and I have high hopes for positive outcomes here at CITES CoP16. Rhinos, elephants, tigers and the many other species impacted by international illegal trade can’t afford for anything less.

I’ll blog more as issues develop and decisions are made – hopefully with positive news – and you can follow the action on Twitter. Don’t forget to support our campaign by signing our petition to ban all ivory trade in Thailand.

Most read.

The Amazon is much more than simply a beautiful, far-off tropical rainforest. It’s also a source of everyday items we rely on. Do you recognise these familiar products and ingredients? Chocolate Did you know that your favourite chocolate originates from the cacao plant? This grows wild in Central and South America and cultivating it can

We’re all concerned about climate change, but when it looks like a problem for future generations, you ask yourself, ‘will climate change even affect me?’ No matter what you care about, climate change is already affecting our world today. While we still have time to limit the worst impact, here are ten great reasons to

Thursday 16 November was Use Less Stuff Day, an attempt to target the highest consumer period in the US. A big part of what we do at WWF is helping people to reduce their consumption because of the devastating effect unsustainable consumption is having on our natural world. We’re all becoming more aware of how

Earth Hour is fast approaching and as the Communications Manager for WWF Cymru my life seems to have been taken over by stars! During the last month I’ve met stars of all shapes and sizes from Hollywood actors to international rugby players, from politicians to school children – all are supporting Earth Hour and our

Saturday 25 January 2014 was a pretty significant day for WWF-UK. Having moved into our fantastic Living Planet Centre back in October 2013, we finally marked the public opening of the WWF Experience! Let me take a few steps back to explain. The idea of the Living Planet Centre was born when long standing supporter

Recently I attended an event at the Scottish Parliament where the UK Committee on Climate Change’s (CCC) presented their most recent progress report of delivery under the Scottish Climate Change Act. Five years ago I would have been in the same building – and possibly the same room – my memory fails me, urging our